This is the UK chart for Suzi’s 2nd week at the top. A few changes in the top 40 since Christmas.

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According to the chart history, Dark Lady by Cher did not score much in the UK top 40 but actually made #1 over here as Cher is known to be as much of a 70s hitmaker in America as she is for the 60s, 80s and 90s.

According to the chart history, Dark Lady by Cher did not score much in the UK top 40 but actually made #1 over here as Cher is known to be as much of a 70s hitmaker in America as she is for the 60s, 80s and 90s.

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Cher had a massive dry spell in the UK after Dark Lady (#36). She didn’t have another hit until I Found Someone 13 years later..

How to say it... if Slade's The Bangin' Man or The Sweet's The Six Teens (or Wings' Band On The Run!) are being held from the top spot because of this, it's a synonym that something is wrong with glam and the charts. Don't get me wrong, it is a pleasant slab of French pop, and Aznavour had an earlier hit in '73 (The Old Fashioned Way). But, yes, the Top of The Pops strike led to that period of comatose activity. To be fair, it started to have more and more pap (not pop, pap) in the upper echelons. Wait until Stephanie de Sykes is at number two...

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The Six Teens is such an incredible song. Hard to believe it is a Chinn and Chapman composition. Don’t get me wrong - I love many of their songs- but this one has a much more serious lyric and the music of the verses sounds more like something off of “The Man Who Sold The World” than Co-Co or Little Willie. Amazing guitar work from Andy Scott.

The Six Teens is such an incredible song. Hard to believe it is a Chinn and Chapman composition. Don’t get me wrong - I love many of their songs- but this one has a much more serious lyric and the music of the verses sounds more like something off of “The Man Who Sold The World” than Co-Co or Little Willie. Amazing guitar work from Andy Scott.

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I played the album it’s from (Desolation Boulevard) today for the first time. I was doing well until I got to The Man With The Golden Arm which is basically an 8 minute drum solo. WTF?!

I think you guys are worrying too much. I'm not sure it's fair to compare these british threads to the US #1 thread, keeping in mind that 80% of the users of this forum are american, so it's logical that one has a much higher turn-out. But every one of these UK #1 threads are running over 50 pages, so I think we're doing fine. Having said that, really folks, with three threads going on at the same time you're over-egging it a bit. Damn, I got blisters on my fingers from trying to keep up.

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I love these UK #1 threads. It really works out better to break them out by year. The US thread is just too unwieldy, and the constant sniping is off putting so I rarely contribute. Most everyone here is polite and I enjoy reading from those of you who were record buyers back in the 70s.

I played the album it’s from (Desolation Boulevard) today for the first time. I was doing well until I got to The Man With The Golden Arm which is basically an 8 minute drum solo. WTF?!

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Yeah that is a real head scratcher! But it gets back on track with the Stone-ish version of Fox On The Run. I love both versions. And if you have the 2005 remaster then you also have some great A and B sides plus the US-only I Wanna Be Committed.

I have Your Baby Ain't Your Baby Anymore by Paul da Vinci. He had a great voice, but management really screwed him over by splitting him from the Rubettes. He had that one hit then faded into obscurity, while the Rubettes kept on making hits for a little while longer.

I have Your Baby Ain't Your Baby Anymore by Paul da Vinci. He had a great voice, but management really screwed him over by splitting him from the Rubettes. He had that one hit then faded into obscurity, while the Rubettes kept on making hits for a little while longer.

I will never forgive the Rubettes. I think you can guess why.

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Hi @HoratioH as far as I know, Paul da Vinci was never in Rubettes in this era, and in fact when Sugar Baby Love was recorded, there was no Rubettes.

Paul did perform with Rubettes featuring Bill Hurd (the Rubettes keyboard player) between 2000-2006, when there was also Rubettes featuring Alan Williams, who as we all know mimed Sugar Baby Love on TOTPs.

Back in this era, it was not at all unusual for the "band" to not play on their own records, as recording time was so expensive and precious, and basically Pop music was considered disposable. It is not that the band couldn't play, but session musicians could probably play it at least as well, but in quarter of the time - there are many fabulous, and well known session musicians.

One story I heard fron the great man himself, was from from Clem Cattini, who certainly at one stage, the former Tornado of Telstar fame, had played on more number one singles than any other musician. Some here may suprise people. @bob60 take a look at 23, 26 and 29. Many more feature in this '70's series of threads, including some horrors!!

Clem Cattini is a legend in drumming terms. He has appeared on these 42 number one hit singles

He also played on The Wombles, alongside session guitarist supreme, Chris (Motor Bikin') Spedding, and 100's of recordings which didn't reach number one.

Clem said, and I paraphase, "If I had known that they would still be playing those records 30 years later, I would have played better!"

Anyway, back to Paul da Vinci, as far as I had read from Wiki, he was the only one of the session musicians to have been offered a recording contract, with Penny Farthing records, so he didn't want to join a made up band, who may not have been successful, in this case, Rubettes.

If you know different to this, please share with us first, and then Wiki!

Ugh, a lot of stinkers in there. Starting from that abomination called Cinderella Rockefella or Grandad. It seems that, from 1974 onwards, he specialized in the odd one hit wonder or MOR pop. Which is a shame, because changing from T. Rex to.. Renée and Renato is a huuuge change.

Ugh, a lot of stinkers in there. Starting from that abomination called Cinderella Rockefella or Grandad. It seems that, from 1974 onwards, he specialized in the odd one hit wonder or MOR pop. Which is a shame, because changing from T. Rex to.. Renée and Renato is a huuuge change.

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He was a session musician, so to pay the bills: you play on what you are told to play on. Some of the horrible lyrics would not have been laid down when the backing tracks were laid down.

My drum tutor, who became a good friend, was friends with, and a massive admirer of Clem, and when he wrote his first drum book, got Clem to write one of those little credits. If it hadn't been for that, I would have been far more ignorant of Clem's amazing recording legacy.

Ugh, a lot of stinkers in there. Starting from that abomination called Cinderella Rockefella or Grandad. It seems that, from 1974 onwards, he specialized in the odd one hit wonder or MOR pop. Which is a shame, because changing from T. Rex to.. Renée and Renato is a huuuge change.

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But from a drumming perspective, T.Rex songs are about as basic as you can get: a tightly arranged pop song can be far more fun to play.

Obviously with a few exceptions, and even then there are no guarantees, you have no idea what is going to become massive. I've no idea how many epic fails and albums, both hits and misses he also played on; though I would suggest it is many!

Rock Your Baby is the debut single by George McCrae. Written and produced by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch of KC and the Sunshine Band, Rock Your Baby was one of the landmark recordings of early Disco music. A massive international hit, the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the United States, spending two weeks at the top in July 1974, number one on the R&B singles chart, and repeating the feat on the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks at the top of the chart in July 1974. Having sold 11 million copies, it is one of the fewer than 40 all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) physical copies worldwide.

The backing track for the record was recorded in 45 minutes as a demo and featured guitarist Jerome Smith of KC and the Sunshine Band, with Casey on keyboards and Finch on bass and drums. It was also one of the first records to use a drum machine, an early Roland rhythm machine. The track was not originally intended for McCrae, but he happened to be in the studio, added a vocal and the resulting combination of infectious rhythm and falsetto vocals made it a hit.

The chord progression of John Lennon's number one single, Whatever Gets You Thru The Night released a few months later, bears a great resemblance to the one found in Rock Your Baby. Lennon later admitted to using the song as an inspiration. ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus have also cited the song as an inspiration for the backing track of their 1976 smash hit Dancing Queen.

The Dutch sleeve.

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Rock Your Baby, nice one. But this song also marked a change in american R&B. Rock Your Baby is much more lightweight than the deeply spiritual paeans by, say, Marvin Gaye or Al Green. I'd still file Rock Your Baby under Soul music, but at the same time is a precursor to Disco, which by 1974 was just around the corner.

When Will I See You Again is a song released in 1974 by American soul group The Three Degrees, from their third album The Three Degrees. The song was written and produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Sheila Ferguson sang the lead, accompanied by Fayette Pinkney and Valerie Holiday.

It was one of the most successful recordings of the Philly Soul era. In the U.S., the song reached #1 on the adult contemporary chart, #2 on the pop singles chart, and #4 on the R & B chart in the autumn of 1974. In the UK, it fared even better, spending two weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart in August 1974. The Three Degrees performed the song at Prince Charles 30th birthday party at Buckingham Palace in 1978.

Sheila Ferguson recalled that "the song was played to me by Kenny Gamble at the piano in 1973 and I threw a tantrum. I screamed and yelled and said I would never sing it. I thought it was ridiculously insulting to be given such a simple song and that it took no talent to sing it. We did do it and several million copies later, I realised that he knew more than me." She would later have a #60 hit with a solo remake of the track in 1994. The song is unique in that every sentence is a question, heightening the overall effect and emotion. In the film Kill Bill: Volume 2, Bill cites this song as his "favourite soul song of the 70s".

Billboard named the song #67 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.

The Dutch sleeve.

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When Will I See You Again, another sign that black american music was changing. Out went Sly Stone's & James Brown's funky pimp suits, being replaced by lush vocal Philly groups in tuxedo, and The Three Degrees wearing glamorous evening dresses.
The Netherlands reacted a bit late to The Three Degrees. In 1975 When Will I See You Again also reached high on the dutch charts, but only after the much better Dirty Old Man had paved way by topping the list for several weeks. The latter remains for me the definitive Three Degrees song, an undisputed Philly Soul classic.